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Man Maths: Lamborghini Aventador

3 days ago

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Writer:

Dan Prosser | Ti co-founder

Date:

19 October 2024

You’re either a Lamborghini person or you’re not. And to contradict myself in the very next sentence, I sit somewhere in the middle. The trouble is, if ever there was a supercar maker whose cars are bought more for their show than their go, Lamborghini is it. They are the show off’s supercar. Driving a Lamborghini makes you look very much like a Lamborghini driver.

But you shouldn’t let that put you off. Comparable cars from Ferrari and McLaren are almost always better to drive in the magazine road tester sense – lighter, more supple suspension, better steering and balance, less compromised visibility and so on. All of that stuff is important but people like me have a habit of overestimating that importance, and therefore underestimating how crucial is the stuff that makes a car truly memorable, like theatre.

By that measure, the typical Lamborghini makes a Ferrari or McLaren look like a Cozy Coupe. That’s especially true of the series of V12 models that started with the Miura in 1966 and runs all the way up to today’s Revuelto. And one of those is massively more plentiful on the used car market than the rest combined – as I write this, there are 41 Aventadors listed for sale on PistonHeads, and just 21 Miuras, Countachs, Diablos, Murciélagos and Revueltos combined.

The Aventador came fifth in Lamborghini's line of V12 supercars

The Aventador got better and better throughout its life. The first example I drove was an LP 700-4 Roadster. Over two days in 2013 I ripped through Italy from Milan to Rome on Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary tour, along with hundreds of other Lambos of every possible kind (actually, I don’t remember seeing any Lamborghini tractors). There is a special kind of immunity that comes with driving an Italian supercar through its homeland, more so when you’re doing it in convoy with a couple of dozen other Lamborghinis. I saw numbers on the speedometer that I still won’t admit to.

I knew very early on what that car’s dynamic limitations were – on fiddly hillside roads it was difficult to properly connect with – but with the roof panels stuffed into the front boot and the 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 howling away at 8000rpm, those limitations didn’t seem very significant.

The LP 700-4 is the most affordable variant today

For real thrills, it's got to be an SVJ

The Aventador LP 740-4 S that followed a few years later was better by a distance but it wasn’t until 2019 that I was really blown away by an Aventador. In just a few miles of Snowdonia mountain road, the hardcore SVJ turned me from stone cold cynic to jabbering acolyte. I remember getting out at the far end twitching with adrenaline.

I was surprised to see that even the earliest Aventadors are still listed for around £150,000. That’ll buy a 2011 LP 700-4 that’s covered around 20,000 miles. Meanwhile SVJs start at around £400,000, but you can pay half as much again for a late model Roadster. And that’s where Man Maths stumbles; where I realise I might not be a Lamborghini person after all – at no price point is the Aventador the mid-engined supercar I would choose to buy. Pity.

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